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Canberra Teen’s Viral TikTok About Being the Token Gay Becomes His Biggest Hit

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Canberra Teen - Jett BlytonJett Blyton’s song about being the token gay goes viral

By ACOMSDave / October 5, 2025

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Canberra’s Jett Blyton didn’t plan to release Apeshit—until 2.5 million people decided otherwise.

“If you said a month ago I’d be releasing a song called Apeshit this year, I wouldn’t have believed you. It didn’t exist yet,” Blyton said.

At the end of July, the Australian alt-pop artist performed the track once on TikTok.

The song exploded.

Over 2.5 million views on TikTok and 300,000+ on Instagram, inspiring 100+ user-generated videos.

With that viral spotlight, Jett had no choice but to officially release it.

‘The only gay dude in a room full of straight guys’

“I wrote this song about being the only gay dude in a room full of straight guys and how tokenistic it can feel,” Blyton explained.

“The fact it resonated with over 2.5 million people now is so insane.”

The Canberra teen has been making waves—featured in Triple J Unearthed High Yearbook for 2023 and 2024, and nominated for Music ACT Music Awards (MAMAs).

His wonky, zany sound is attention-grabbing.

So good for him for capitalising on this moment.

“I took the song to my friend Thomas Porter and said, ‘let’s get this out ASAP,'” Blyton said.

“With some final touches from Aleksiah and Harry O’Brien (from Pacific Avenue), this is my favourite song I’ve ever put out.”

‘Everybody here used to bully me’

Apeshit opens with a girl calling Jett: “I know you said you didn’t wanna come out tonight, but my boyfriend’s thing is on, and I literally don’t know, like, anyone else going.”

Jett sings: “I don’t wanna drink, but there isn’t a choice, they’re dapping me up like I’m one of the boys. And everybody here used to bully me in 8th grade.”

The track captures that universal feeling of being alone in a crowd—drinking through discomfort and struggling with feelings nobody else in the room understands.

The official version brings Jett’s unapologetic honesty to the forefront with electronic alt-pop energy.

Following his recent single Needingabreak, his most supported track on Australian radio, Jett’s earned shoutouts from Sabrina Carpenter and Tove Lo.

His Double Vision (Vol. 2) EP drops in November.

You can listen to Apeshit now.

For more LGBTQ+ music and community stories, visit ACOMSDave.com.

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Country Singer Billy Gilman Comes Out As Gay in Personal YouTube Video

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Country singer Billy Gilman came out as gay online Thursday, hours after fellow country act Ty Herndon revealed he was gay as well.
The former child country star — best known for 2000’s tender “One Voice” — broke the news in a personal video posted to YouTube, addressing his fans with a clear nervousness.
“Today a fellow country artist and friend made it easier for me to make this video,” he says in the clip. “And I wanted my fans who have stuck by me for many, many years to know.”
 

Gilman tells a story of being caught by a reporter in Rhode Island at a local fall festival while he was there with his partner — “somebody who I am now, happily, sharing my life with,” he says. “And this reporter took a picture of us and it was in that moment that I knew that I’d rather it be from me than you reading it somewhere else and probably filled with not-truth.”
The singer continues, with an explanation of how difficult it is to be a gay country singer and how he has felt prejudice in Nashville based on rumors over his sexuality.

Billy Gilman Grows Up: From ‘One Voice’ to ‘Say You Will’

“Being a gay male country artist is not the best thing,” he says. “If people don’t like your music, that’s one thing. But after selling over 5 million records, having a wonderful life in the music industry, I knew something was wrong when no major label wanted to sit down and have a meeting and listen to the new stuff. … It’s difficult for me to make this video, not because I’m ashamed to be a gay male artist, or a gay artist, or a gay person, but it’s pretty silly to know that I’m ashamed of doing this knowing that because I’m in a genre in an industry that is ashamed of me for being me.”
Gilman thanks Herndon as well, who he says he’s “known and been a fan of, and congratulations on such a courageous effort.”
“I’ve been going back and forth on how to approach this and rather than do it on some talk show, I thought I’d do it in front of a simple camera, very personal,” Gilman says. “I’ve been an advocate for so many things in my life I thought now why not be an advocate for me and for the cause that I believe in with my whole heart.”